Bible study 20 – Genesis 20

Abraham moves to a new place, and once again tells everyone that Sarah is his sister, even though he must remember that God punished all the innocent people who believed that same lie when he went to Egypt. When the local ruler, Abimelech, inevitably takes Sarah for his wife, God makes all his female relatives temporarily infertile, and warns that more punishment awaits. So Abimelech gives Sarah back to Abraham and asks, why would you lie to me about this!? I never did anything to you! Abraham responds, well, I didn’t think anybody here believed in God. And anyway, she’s actually my half-sister, so I wasn’t really lying per se.

Obviously terrified by this totally unrepentant liar (or, at the very least, deceiver) with magical powers, Abimelech sends Abraham and Sarah on their way with all the regular stuff: oxen, sheep, slaves and silver. In return, Abraham asks God not to murder Abimelech and to make all the innocent women fertile again.